Ajuts postdoctorals Beatriu de Pinós (BP 2025). ACCIÓ

Contact: Marta Renato (marta.renato@gencat.cat) Phone 93.781.97.89; Montse Boada (montse.boada@gencat.cat) Phone 93.268.77.21

The submission deadline for provisional applications: From 8 february until 9 March 2023 at 14:00, local time in Barcelona.

The periode for institutions to confirm or decline submission of provisional applications: From 17 March to 29 March 2023. 

Regulation (english version): General terms and Call

IMPORTANT: All the procedures for this call can only be done by electronic means.

Object

The purpose of the Beatriu de Pinós programme is to award individual grants for the employment and incorporation of postdoctoral research staff into the Catalan science and technology system.

Who?

All universities, research centres and hospital foundations located in Catalonia can benefit from this grant. Technology centres, technological activity support centres and technology dissemination centres are all excluded from this call.

Requirements

Individual candidates of any nationality must meet the following requirements:

The individual candidates must have obtained a doctorate qualification between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 (understood as the date of obtaining the doctorate as the date of the reading and approval of the thesis).

The period for obtaining the doctorate qualification is from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020 provided that the following facts can be justified during this period: 

- Having taken maternity or paternity leave.
- Have dependant children under the age of 6.
- Having taken care of people with a legally recognised physical, mental or sensory disability.
- Having suffered a serious illness or accident that requires major surgery or hospital treatment and which causes temporary incapacity for the person's normal occupation or activity for a minimum continuous period of 6 months. Minor surgery, out-patient surgery and rehabilitation treatment performed outside the hospital system are excluded.
- Have recognised refugee status according to the Geneva Convention of 1951.
- Have undergone any of the situations provided for in article 1 of Organic Law 1/2004, of 28 December, on comprehensive protection measures against gender violence.
- Have with a degree of disability which is greater than or equal to 33%, as issued by the evaluation and orientation teams at the Government of Catalonia care centres for people with functional diversity

b) Have, at the time of joining the receiving institution, a minimum of two (2) years of post-doctoral experience outside Spain. This post-doctoral experience, regardless of the type of
affiliation, may have been carried out in different institutions, provided that the total period of post-doctoral stay is at least two (2) years.

c) Not to have resided or worked in Spain for more than 12 months in the last three (3) years prior to the end date of the deadline for submitting applications. In the case of refugee research staff, the mobility rule applies from the date of obtaining official recognition of a refugee in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention.

One (1) of the grants is reserved for individual candidates with a degree of disability which is greater than or equal to 33%, as issued by the evaluation and orientation teams at the Government of Catalonia care centres for people with functional diversity or equivalent. In the event that no one opts for this aid, it will be reallocated, providing a balanced distribution by areas according to the applications submitted.

Individuals who opt for this position must state this and provide the supporting documentation at the time required by AGAUR. Non-accreditation of the degree of disability will imply an ordinary treatment of the application. People who apply for this position must comply with the requirements set out in section 3.1 of these grant rules.

Candidate benefiting from a Beatriu de Pinós grant cannot apply for a new call for these grants.

Period of execution and duration

The contracts object of this funding must have a term of 3 years.
The grant beneficiary institutions must formally enter into the contract in accordance with applicable regulations within the period from the publication of the award resolution on the Government of Catalonia e-noticeboard and the date stipulated in the corresponding call.

Amount of the grant

The amount of the grant for the hiring of research staff is 136,906.86 euros. This amount is to finance the cost of each contract for the three (3) years of this grant, and it includes the remuneration to be paid to the research staff as well as the employer’s Social Security contributions. The grants awarded are subject to the tax regime in force at the time they are awarded.

In addition, the grant also includes an amount for compensation costs for termination of the contract due to expiration of the agreed time, with an amount equivalent to that provided for fixed-term contracts in Article 49 of the Revised Text of the Labour Act with a maximum of 3,441.60 euros per grant

The beneficiary of the grant must assume any increase in contractual costs arising from any incident that may occur.6.4 The beneficiary of the grant may increase the salary of the research staff hired and also take responsibility of the corresponding employer's Social Security contribution.

The grant has an additional amount of €12,000.00. This grant is intended exclusively for the actions executed by the individual candidate during the period under the contract subject to the grant and which must be managed by the beneficiary entity itself.

Call results

When is the answer received?

The legal deadline for the resolution is six months from the day after the date of publication of this call for applications in the DOGC. Upon termination of this deadline without an express resolution, the grant application shall be deemed rejected due to administrative silence.

Which answer is received?

Before awarding the grants, the examining body must decide upon the inadmissibility or rejection of applications, which shall be notified to the interested party by means of publication on the Government of Catalonia’s e-noticeboard.

The interested parties shall be notified of the award resolution by means of publication on the Government of Catalonia e-noticeboard.

Acceptance of grant

Grants must be formally accepted using a standard model signed by the beneficiary entity’s legal representative, in which they have to undertake to fulfil these grant rules and the corresponding call.

The acceptance form must be submitted on the AGAUR electronic register using the EACAT platform or through the Procedure Associated with an AGAUR file (submission of documentation and other requests), which can be found in the "Procedures" section of the website of the Government of Catalonia (<http://web.gencat.cat/ca/tramits/> ), no later than two months from the publication of the resolution to award the grants on the electronic noticeboard of the Government of Catalonia.

In addition to the acceptance document, the following documentation must be provided:

a) A copy of the candidate’s DNI (Spanish National ID Card), passport or NIE (Foreign National ID Card).

b) A copy of the doctoral degree or the receipt of the application for the issuance of the candidate's doctoral degree. If applicable, a document stating the date the thesis was read (with the date of reading and approval of the thesis understood as the date of obtaining the doctorate).

c) Where applicable, a statement stating from the candidate that he or she has had maternity leave, paternity leave or devoted their time to the care of children under the age of 6, persons with physical, mental or sensory disabilities, or persons over the age of 65 years who depend on the candidate and require special care, or who have suffered a serious illness or accident that requires major surgery or hospital treatment and which causes temporary incapacity for the person's normal occupation or activity for a minimum continuous period of 6 months. The mandatory documentation must be attached to this declaration.

d) A certificate from the research staff proctor who has supervised or is supervising the postdoctoral stay or stays carried out outside Spain for the activities carried out, indicating the dates on which these stays were carried out.

e) Copy of the deed of incorporation of the entity to which the grant is linked and of its statutes.

f) Copy of the identification document of the legal representative of the entity in connection with the grant and a document accrediting the powers of attorney.

g) In accordance with Article 15.2 of Law 19/2014 of 29 December on Transparency, Access to Public Information and of Good Governance; if the amount of the awarded grant exceeds €10,000, the statement of compliance must be provided on the information regarding the remuneration received by their management or administrative bodies, for the purpose of making it public, in accordance with their corporate criteria and, if necessary, according to the corresponding implementing regulations.

In the event that some of these documents have already been submitted in previous AGAUR calls at the time the agreement provided for in Rule 7 is formalised, these do not have to be re-submitted as long as the applicant entity provides a declaration specifying these documents and the date on which they were submitted, stating that they are still valid. Pursuant to the provisions set forth in section d) of Article 53 of Law 39/2015 of 1 October on Common Administrative Procedure, it has been noted that the Administration of the Government of Catalonia, in the case of universities and research centres in the CERCA programme, already has this information; therefore, these institutions do not have to submit the documents set forth in sections e), f) and g) of this rule.

Beneficiary status is obtained at the time the grant is accepted. It is understood that entities which have not submitted the acceptance document and the rest of the documentation within the term and under the conditions provided for in these grant rules and corresponding call are tacitly renouncing the grant.

Sending documents

The documents will be send (with electronic signatures) by using one of the following electronic registers and in the following preference order.

Procedure Associated with an AGAUR file (contribution of documentation and other requests) Whith personal signature. The number of the file must be correctly identified (year(space)BP(espace)file, i.e, 0000 BP 00000) to correctly donwload the information to our managing programe BOGA (Back Office Gestió d’Ajuts).
EACAT (if the instituion is registerd to it).

Payment of the grant

The amount of the grant will be paid in three instalments:

The payment of 40% of the grant for the recruitment of the candidate and the payment of 60% of the additional aid shall be processed at the time when the recipient entity certifies the incorporation of the hired research staff, within two months from the day after it becomes effective, in writing from the researcher of the recipient research group who is to coordinate the candidate’s research activity, stating the date of incorporation at his/her place of work and a copy of the signed contract, stating the gross annual salary, the contract duration and dates, and the place of provision of the Ph.D.'s services. This documentation shall be accompanied by the candidate’s personalised professional development plan.

The second payment is 50% of the grant for hiring the candidate and 20% of the additional aid must be processed at the time the grant beneficiary submits to AGAUR the scientific-technical monitoring report, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 25.

The payment of the remaining 10% of the grant for hiring the candidate, the remaining 20% of the additional aid, and if applicable, 100% of the work completion compensation will be made once the grant justification has been submitted and reviewed, in accordance with the stipulations provided in these grant rules.

If a partial renunciation should take place which involves the justification of a contracting period of less than 18 months, the maximum amount of the additional grant would be the amount set forth in the corresponding call.

Incorporation of candidate

The beneficiary entities must hire the candidate and formalise the contract in accordance with the regulations in force, in respect of the period understood as the one between the date of publication of the awarding of the grant on the electronic noticeboard of the Administration of the Government of Catalonia and 1 April 2024.

In the case of grants awarded in substitution from the reserve list, whose resolutions are announced from 01.01.2024, hiring may be done up to 01.07.2024 at the latest.

The incorporation must be certified within 2 months from the day after it becomes effective, through:
- A letter from the responsible researcher certifying that the candidate has joined and the date of joining his/her workplace (standard model) and the research career plan.
- A copy of the signed contract, which must state the gross annual remuneration, the duration, the dates of the contract and the place where the doctor's services are provided.

Monitoring the grant

To assess the achievement of the objectives contemplated in the application, the beneficiary institution must submit, during the 18th month of the contract, a scientific/technical report based on the approved form.

Final justification of the grant

Beneficiar

y entities must justify the effective execution of the projects and certify it during the two months following the end of the grant, regardless of the reasons that cause it.

The supporting documentation must be submitted on the AGAUR electronic register using the EACAT platform or through the general procedure of AGAUR, which can be found in the “Procedures” section of the Government of Catalonia's website (<http://web.gencat.cat/ca/tramits/>).

The documentation to be attached is as follows:

a) Scientific-technical report explaining the fulfilment of the objectives and purpose of the grant, indicating the activities carried out and the results obtained, signed by the hired candidate and with the approval of the researcher of the recipient research group the candidate has coordinated with during his/her research activity. If applicable, it is necessary to fill in the section on ethical aspects and provide documentation accrediting the ethical aspects of the activities carried out (standard model).

b) A certificate from the researcher of the recipient research group the candidate has coordinated with during his/her research activity, accrediting the work or research project carried out and the dates on which it was carried out, with the approval of the entity’s legal representative (standard model).

c) A certificate of the cost of hiring the candidate during the grant period, detailed monthly for the entire period (salary and employer fee), issued with the approval of the entity’s legal representative to which the copy of the last two payslips must be attached. If required, the beneficiary entities must make the necessary documentation available to AGAUR in order to manage possible incidents corresponding to the contract (standard model).

d) A classified list of the expenses incurred with the additional aid, signed by the legal representative, with identification of the concept, the creditor, invoice number or document of equivalent probative value, the amount, the date of issue and, if applicable, the date of payment. In the event that the grant is awarded in accordance with a budget, a settlement must be submitted indicating, where appropriate, the reasons for the deviations from the initial budget (standard model).

Grants for the incorporation of postdoctoral research staff into the Catalan science and technology system, within the Beatriu de Pinós programme (BP 2022)